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Elevated Rock Art. Maritime images and situations. By Johan Ling
The aim of this article is to communicate the fieldwork conducted by the measuring of rock art and the surrounding terrain in Tanum. The study is a part of the author’s PhD work which aims to address new questions and perspectives about how the rock art and the landscape in Tanum could be perceived, reconstructed and understood in relation to the shore displacement. New facts regarding the shore displacement during the Bronze Age in Tanum will also be presented. The conclusion of the measurement of the low situated rock art sites and terrain demonstrates clearly that a majority of the carvings in Tanum seems to have been sited close to the contemporary shore during the Bronze Age. These facts open up for a new discussion about maritime socio-ritual interactions, positions, ideals and traditions, as manifested by the rock art in the area. On basis of the made fieldwork I will also present a ship chronology of the landscape, a hypothesis about the rock art in relation to shore displacement and comparative chronology.

The Concept of Nature: Rock Carvings and Shamanism in Arctic Norway. By Bjørn Berg
The idea of nature that prevails today is incommensurable with shamanism, which is closely linked to animism. Animism must be handled on it’s own premises, which I identify to be influenced by the emotional aspects of human life, rather than the mechanical logic of the intellect. According to the science of phenomenology, as described by Edmund Husserl, the traditional split of mind and body related to human epistemology result in a view of nature that creates a world of ideals. This ideality is justified, but a problem arises when our personal bodily sensations no longer correlates to the ideal world of abstract or mathematizated truths. The perceived world becomes something false, with a ‘true’ or ideal meaning behind the matter. This causes a gap or dilemma between life as a felt reality, and life as an ideal, or non-personal truth. These two modes, I argue, uses two different ‘languages’. The phenomenological is a direct language, i.e. a language that contradicts the infamous signsignified concept of Saussure and the linguistic tradition, which states that the connection between a sign and the signified are arbitrarily constituted. This theoretical background I use to draw some interpretations upon the rock art from Amtmannsnes, Finnmark County. These carvings I primary read as metaphorical embodiments reflecting a shamanic praxis connected to seasonal changes.

Toro Muerto, Peru. Possible Prehistoric Deletion of Petroglyph Details. By Maarten van Hoek
Rock art sites frequently feature intriguing, often highly distinctive characteristics, involving unexpected or deviant imagery or properties thereof. To give an example, in certain parts of the Andes it is not unusual to find a rock art site with an image of a “monkey”. However, an image of a “monkey playing a trumpet” is highly idiosyncratic and has so far only been reported in one occasion.
In contrast with the unexpected is the rather common practice of re-pecking or re-scratching petroglyphs. Often, later prehistoric societies or even modern people, often vandals, re-worked altered or even destroyed the images. Alternatively, however, members of the same prehistoric society who created the original images were responsible for this practice. In most cases, the original image remained unchanged. Layout and internal details remained the same, though re-worked.

Valcamonica - archaeological discoveries. By Silvana Gavaldo - Umberto Sansoni
During summer 2004 the equip of Dipartimento Valcamonica del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici has worked in Valcamonica on a new site with prehistoric rock art: the site of “I Verdi” (in the Regional Reserve of Rock Carvings of Ceto, Cimbergo, Paspardo, middle Valcamonica). This small area is between the well-known site of Naquane, the National Park of Rock Carving (to the north) and the smaller Park of Foppe di Nadro (to the south). As we suspected, we found also here engraved surfaces hidden by moss, plants, thin layers of earth: I Verdi provides a link between the two greater concentrations of rock carvings, yet this site has got its own, well defined, themes and peculiarities.
We discovered 7 new engraved surfaces in this site, and worked on 12 rocks with carvings in the border line with Foppe di Nadro, discovering 5 unknown surfaces in this area. The 19 rocks have been cleaned and the panels recorded, both with photos and on plastic sheets; every carving has been recorded in a database.

Weathering and decay. Breakdown rates of rock carvings in the southern part of Sweden. By Jan O.H. Swantesson
During the last decades it has been recognised by many that several of our Bronze Age rock carvings have suffered damage and that there is a risk that they finally will disappear. However, fairly little is known about how fast the decay proceeds or about the reasons for the weathering we see today. It must be remembered that weathering is a natural process and rock carvings and other heritage objects in rock never can have an eternal life. It is furthermore often said that several environmental factors might increase breakdown rates of rocks, but it is not proved to what extent. This article is a contribution to a better knowledge of how fast the breakdown proceeds at present and comparisons are made with other areas without rock carvings. To assess downwearing rates 24 sites with rock carvings were selected, with the help of regional authorities, in southern and south central Sweden. Between 1994 and 2003 accurate repeated measurement with laser scanner were made at these sites. This allowed recent downwearing rates to be calculated precisely.